צילום הצבה דניאל חנוך

Samuel Krauss and Adam Elezrah are artists who work together in the same studio, referring to their occasional collaborations as "studio discussions" that lead to common themes but different works. Their series of sculptures and prints are based on images and elements that they picked up from their daily material browsing in the industrial area of south Tel Aviv where their studio is located. The title of their joint exhibition, "Busybody," refers to a person who is excessively curious about the lives of others.

 

As local and foreign artists working in the area, they observe and follow random pedestrians and merchants, collecting scenes of workers with their tools and objects. Krauss's sculptures follow DIY and utilitarian principles, complemented with corporal and figurative motifs. One of his works, the XXXL 'Work Suit,' is made of a pearly material that appears to have come from wrapping paper for gifts, assembled into a working garment usually made of thick denim or hard synthetic fabrics.

 

The attention that the artists draw to these items reveals that mass production, despite our perception of it as cheap and impersonal, can be full of decorative details with personality. It is about the impact on our material experience and the close relationship between art, crafts, and design in our lives.

 

In Elezrah's two silkscreen prints, "Poster of Things," he works with a still-life genre and shows an arrangement of various 3D objects, creating a playful simulation of an internally collapsing reality. Inspired by the Korean Chaekgori (책거리), which literally translates to "book and things," the two prints exaggerate the reversed perspective, competing for the viewer's attention between posters, dildos, and books. These works tempt the viewer into accepting a state of reality in flux, with co-existing multiple perspectives, and new experiences of collective release through work and pleasure.

 

In Karl Marx's words, "The form of wood, for instance, is altered if a table is made out of it. Nevertheless, the table continues to be wood, an ordinary, sensuous thing.” That magical transformation from material to art, from sensuousness to commodity, is what Elezrah and Krauss work is about.

 

Curated by Amit Rubin 

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